Dut Tsi

for symphony orchestra (c.a. 18 min)

The second of the ten Avataras of Vishnu, this incarnation like the Matsya Avatara also belongs to the Satya yuga.

The legend is that at a very remote period when the gods felt their powers weakened and were desirous of obtaining Dut Tsi (Tibetan for amrita the beverage of immortality), Vishnu directed them to churn, together with the demons, the ocean of milk. For this purpose they took the mountain Mandara as the churning stick. But they could succeed only when Vishnu himself consented to support the mountain on his back; after having assumed the shape of a gigantic tortoise: the milk became butter and Dut Tsi was pulled up from the bottom of the World Sea.